Orcs and Goblins

[Farimir Captain of Gondor]

Originally Posted by Spock

To paraphrase Ron Weasley: "we're scary; brilliant, but scary".

i forget who said it but "Theres a thin line between briliance and insanity."

[Galin]

Originally Posted by The Wizard from Milan

I am pretty sure Goblins are mentioned at least once in the LotR (but I would not remember where).

I found 13 instances (so far, but without computer help. There might be more).

Originally Posted by Lefty Scaevola

Same thing; representations of different laguages. Orc (Orch) is representative of the Anduniac word, similar to the Sindarin word and Nandorin word (Yrch) and related to the Black Speech (which adopted some Sindarin forms) word (Uruk). Goblins (and in the hobbit, Hob-Goblins for large ones) seems to be representative of the hobbit word,...

I disagree a bit (if I read you correctly): orch is rather Sindarin, as is yrch (plural). Spock appears to agree with that last bit (Spock posted 'Hobbits called them goblins'), but this seems to imply that 'goblin' represents some word used by Hobbits, while Orc represents another word used by other folk.

I do not think 'goblin' represents some unknown word, but is a translation for Orc itself. So Hobbits used the word Orc as well.

Originally Posted by Farimir Captain of Gondor

Okay, so orcs and goblins are the same just live in different places and speak a different language. Got it.

Orcs did live in different places and speak different languages. Elves lived in different places and spoke different languages too, but they are all Quendi, or to translate this into English, they are all 'Elves'. All Orcs are 'goblins', though there are other words that carry more specific meanings (Uruk came to refer to a 'great soldier orc' for example).

Originally Posted by arvedui_last_king

'... I also think the word goblin is just an english translation of the sindarin word orch, plural yrch and Goblins = Orcs.'

So I agree with Arvedui that no distinction is intended, only I would add that 'goblin' also has been used to translate Orc, as well as the Sindarin words (and possibly other words actually used in Middle-earth way back when).

[Jon S.]

Originally Posted by Farimir Captain of Gondor

i forget who said it but "Theres a thin line between briliance and insanity."

"There's such a thin line between clever and stupid." Nigel Tufnel (Spinal Tap)